Chapter 49: The System Board Appears

Still running, Elias grabbed a few of the tree branches within reach before leaping up and landing on a bough.

If a hundred troops were surrounding them from four directions, that meant twenty-five in each direction.

With the Nocturne family’s army numbering only fifty, fighting back was clearly going to be hard. Elias had briefly thought about sending someone back to the Nocturne Territory to ask for reinforcements, but he was afraid that by the time help arrived, there’d be nobody left.

Elias then rummaged through his storage pouch, looking for anything useful. But all it held was a few potions, poisons, Magic Talismans, and some food.

*Rustle... Rustle...

"I could use poison since it works over an area. No, that’s not a good solution. Our own troops would get hit by it too.

"But if we keep holding out like this, we’ll get exhausted sooner or later. With the Team Captain and the Vice Captain there, they should be able to hold on for a while, but still..."

In the end, their main problems were numbers and stamina.

Elias chose to think up a solution while acting, dropping down from the tree before landing and running toward the north first.

"I should have some Affinities with Arcanas other than Space Arcana. Alright, let’s give it a try first!"

After running a few meters, the noise of shouting and clashing metal began to ring out from up ahead.

He stopped for a moment before jumping up into a tree again to observe the situation of the fight. The force in the North was only half Mercenaries, and they weren’t just holding on, they were even able to fight back against the Everhart troops.

Feeling that the front line could be handled by the Mercenaries, Elias finally chose to ambush the enemy troops from the side.

He then jumped down, drawing his sword as he ran with a bottle of poison in his left hand. After coating his legs with mana, he charged forward at the flank of the enemy troops.

While he was still in the air, a few of the Everhart troops noticed Elias coming. But Elias quickly threw the bottle of poison at the troops below him.

When the bottle shattered, a black smoke began to spread in every direction. The Everhart troops instinctively covered their mouths and noses while coughing.

*Cough! Cough!

"What is this?!"

"Cough! Be careful, they’re using dust to block our vision!"

The moment Elias landed, he turned right around toward the Nocturne troops and shouted.

"Listen up, Nocturne troops! Get away from this smoke and don’t you dare breathe it in, not even a little!"

Hearing that, one of the soldiers, a Mercenary, immediately ordered everyone to fall back following Elias’s words.

"Everyone, fall back!"

"Fall back!"

The Everhart troops, seeing the Nocturne troops begin to retreat, started to get confused when Elias told them to pull back, and what confused them most was being told not to breathe in the black smoke hanging in the middle of the Everhart ranks.

"Khuak! H-help... Me!"

"Ahhh!!! Hot! It’s hot! My body feels like it’s melting from the inside!"

"It hurts! Stop! This hurts! Help!"

When he saw his comrades starting to collapse in horrific condition, one of the soldiers finally realized.

"You idiots! Get away from there! It’s poison!"

"W-what? But from the smell and the texture, this looks like powder— aghh!!! My body... My body’s so hot! Help! Help~!"

The soldier couldn’t do anything but watch his comrade die slowly as his skin began to peel off.

As the Everhart soldiers’ focus started to slip, Elias quickly dashed toward the several soldiers around him and cut them all down.

*Sring!

*Sring!

*Sring!

"Khuakk!"

The soldier turned around at the sound of screaming and a sword slash, and found that several of his comrades were already lying on the ground, with a young man standing among their corpses, flicking his sword to shake off the blood still clinging to it.

Realizing the one who’d used the poison was Elias, the soldier immediately pointed his sword at him.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! How dare you use poison and ambush us!"

"Huh? Am I hearing this right? Are you stupid or what? Who ambushed who?"

"But we’ve never used poison or killed in a vile way like this!"

"What are you even talking about? There’s no difference between killing with poison and cutting with a sword. Besides, this is a battlefield. Any method is fair game as long as it wins."

"Even so, at least we fight honestly and bravely! We kill our enemies with swords! Not with tricks like poison! And besides, what the hell is this poison?"

"What? ’Honest and brave?’ Hmph! Even a pack of Iron Wolf Fangs is better than you guys.

"Comparing two bad things doesn’t make either of them any better."

If something was bad at its core, it stayed bad.

Elias then glanced at the corpses behind the soldier, the ones who’d died from the poison.

Auntie Centipede’s poison was extremely dangerous. Its scent was like freshly brewed coffee and its texture was like flour, so anyone could mistake it for something harmless even though it was black.

"But with just a single breath, a person’s internal organs will feel hot for half a minute. After that, the poison starts spreading through the bloodstream and makes their blood boil.

"That’s why people who get hit by this poison feel like they’re being burned from the inside."

The soldier stayed rooted to his spot, listening to Elias explain the poison he’d used. There were several things he didn’t understand, starting with,

’Who is this Auntie Centipede he’s talking about, and how did that woman make a poison this terrifying?’

"You’re probably thinking that, right? Honestly, I don’t know how she does it either. Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you~"

The poison had three phases in how it attacked. Depending on how strong the victim was, most would die the moment they entered the second phase, which was when their blood boiled and their skin began to peel from the heat inside their bodies.

"And your comrades could only last until the second phase. That’s worth celebrating."

"You bastard!"

Hearing Elias say that, the soldier ran at him with an angry face and swung his sword. But of course, Elias could easily block a raw attack like that.

*Clang!

Then he kicked the soldier in the stomach, sending him flying back a few steps before he hit the ground.

"But there are also those who only die once they reach the final phase. In this phase, the poison directs the boiling blood toward the lungs until it slowly fills them.

The soldier got back up, clutching his stomach, which hurt from Elias’s kick.

"Even someone at Vladir’s level would surely die right away. The boiling blood filling the lungs would make it hard to breathe, while the heat starts destroying the tissue of the organ."

"Impossible! The Commander won’t die just from this poison!"

Elias then smirked a little while tapping his sword against his own shoulder.

"Even if he could still hold on, his body would soon suffer from lack of oxygen. His brain would start losing function, his nervous system would get damaged, and his heart would slowly lose the ability to pump blood normally."

A person could stay alive with brain damage, depending on which part was hit and how badly.

And quite literally, the heart was the king of organs.

"In the end, his body wouldn’t be able to last any longer."

So why didn’t Elias just use this poison on Vladir? Wouldn’t the fight have ended fast, and he could’ve gone looking for the Heartbloom right away?

With someone at Vladir’s level, it obviously wouldn’t be as easy as pouring water into a bucket. Besides, Vladir was an army commander, so he surely had experience, and his level of caution about poison wasn’t as low as this soldier’s.

’Basically, it wouldn’t be easy...’

Elias looked at the few soldiers who were still alive before looking at the corpses of those who’d died from the poison.

’They don’t have any fighting spirit left.’

After making sure the poison had vanished, or more precisely, turned into air, Elias shouted:

"Listen up, Nocturne soldiers! Those of you who are wounded can stay put here! Those who can still fight, follow me to take on the enemy troops who haven’t surrendered! We’ll slaughter every last one of them and help our comrades!"

"Follow Sir Elias!"

"Follow Sir Elias!"

’I still can’t get used to being called Sir...’

The Nocturne soldiers cheered right away and ran after Elias from behind.

’Alright, we’ll head east first, since our numbers there are lower. Even though the Team Captain is there, he must be almost at his limit.’

"We’re going east!"

"Yes, Sir!"

Elias then tossed a Grade B Mana Stone into the air as he ran, and the mana held inside it began to spread and flow into the soldiers’ bodies, boosting their strength while restoring their drained mana.

Then the Mana Stone crumbled into dust as the mana inside ran out.

* * *

After running for a while, they could already see the glow of blazing fires and hear the noise of the fighting.

Elias drew his sword and picked up his pace.

"Everyone! Charge!"

The soldiers behind him then sprinted forward, leaving Elias at the back.

Elias channeled mana into his palm before pouring it into his sword. The sword began to spin rapidly as more and more mana went into it, and then he focused mana into the soles of his feet before jumping.

"Watch out, boom incoming~!"

Elias hurled his sword straight at the enemy troops, and then...

*Boom!

The energy inside the sword exploded as it stuck into the ground. Some of the soldiers died instantly from the blast and some were only wounded, while the ground hit by the explosion was blown apart, leaving a big but shallow hole.

’Geez... I really need to train more when I get back.’

"Kid!"

When Elias landed, he immediately pulled his sword back with the mana thread before running toward the Team Captain, who had several slash wounds.

"Sir. Are you alright?"

"As you can see! I’m still alive."

Even though he looked fine, it was only a matter of time before the Team Captain got exhausted.

Luckily, Elias had arrived in time, because the difference in numbers between the enemy troops and the Team Captain’s men was painfully obvious.

"Thank goodness. Then let’s finish this as fast as we can."

"Let’s go!"

Just as Elias was about to run off with the Team Captain, he suddenly stopped himself, cold sweat breaking out on his face and his pupils shrinking as a system board appeared in front of his eyes.

* * *